White House Attorneys Looking at Loans to Kushner Business for Potential Ethics, Criminal Violations
It appears a half-billion dollars worth of loans that the president’s son-in-law took out are under scrutiny because he held White House meetings with company executives before getting the loans.
Lawyers for the Trump administration are currently looking at two loan that White House senior advisor Jared Kushner’s business took out to see if they violated any federal ethics regulations or other criminal laws. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Office of Government Ethics sent a letter to a Democratic lawmaker explaining that the White House is examining a $184 million loan from Apollo Global Management LLC and a $325 million loan from Citigroup.
The letter was sent to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), a House Oversight Committee member who asked the OGE earlier this month for an opinion on potential ethical breaches made by Kushner since he met with the corporate execs. The meetings and loans were reported by the New York Times in February.
“I have discussed this matter with the White House Counsel’s Office in order to ensure that they have begun the process of ascertaining the facts necessary to determine whether any law or regulation has been violated,” OGE acting director David Apol wrote. “During that discussion, the White House informed me that they had already begun this process.”
Citigroup has denied there was anything inappropriate about its company’s loan to Kushner’s business, stating that nothing related to the loan was discussed at the meeting and “the Kushner family has been a client of Citi for decades.”
[image via screengrab]
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